Death Trip (5 page)

Mann found himself a sunny spot in a café on Dam Square, sat back and sipped his double espresso as he studied the world through his sunglasses and waited for Magda. He had an early evening flight booked back home, it left in a few hours. He needed to talk with her alone. He saw her coming from way off. He watched her walk across the square towards him. He still didn’t get it. He could not understand his father having an affair for all those years and on such a scale…He knew that it was how it was with Chinese men in the old days, but Mann had never thought of his father in that way. Maybe if Mann hadn’t been educated in England he would see things differently. To find out his father had conformed to the old Chinese ways of keeping a concubine made Mann feel at best disappointed, at worst betrayed. Infidelity just didn’t sit right with Mann.

Sure, he’d had his fair share of one-night stands, some mistakes, plus a lot of good times. It wasn’t that Mann had never known love. Helen had been a good kind of love, solid, sweet and dependable. He had never
felt the need to look elsewhere. They were well matched in every way. She kept him on his toes. If she thought he was ignoring her she made sure he knew it. He had loved her as much as he could but it wasn’t enough. She’d wanted kids, commitment. He was married to his work; he was committed to finding his father’s killer and a part of him was too scared to love and lose. She knew that but it didn’t stop her wanting more from him. Now he could see that she’d deserved more. He wished he had not let her leave that day. He had driven up just as the taxi driver was putting her case in the boot. Helen was looking at him through the back window with love in her eyes and still he hadn’t stopped her. He wished he’d known then that the taxi driver was taking her to a place to be tortured and killed.

Watching Magda cross the square now, Mann saw the other side of being a mistress. He realised how much of Magda’s life must have been on hold; how much of it must have been destroyed by his father’s death. As she neared the café she caught sight of him, waved and walked over.

‘Are you okay sitting outside?’ he asked.

‘Of course. It actually feels like spring today.’ She smiled but her eyes were full of sadness at the irony of the world coming to life. She was wearing the same jeans, the same fleece that she’d had on the previous evening. She had a beanie pulled over her head. She ordered a hot chocolate and sat down opposite him. There was some softness in her pale face today, thought Mann. It was almost serene. She caught him looking at her.

‘Sorry. I am on strong painkillers. It makes me drift away. Sometimes I find it hard to come back and sometimes I don’t want to.’

Mann smiled. ‘I understand, Magda.’

He waited until the waitress brought her drink. Magda cradled her mug of chocolate and closed her eyes for a few seconds as she enjoyed a brief respite from the turmoil and savoured the sun on her face.

‘I went to the NAP offices this morning. I found the manageress, Katrien—the one Alfie calls “the Bitch”. I can see what he means.’ Mann set his cup down. Magda spooned the frothy cream from her chocolate into her mouth. ‘I think she’s not telling us anywhere near as much as she could,’ Mann continued. ‘I want Alfie to follow her. I want to know all about her. I want you to keep the pressure up on her every day, Magda, you and the other parents. You need to get more vocal. You need to stamp your foot in the government departments. Don’t let them ease off.’

‘I can do that.’ Magda stirred her chocolate vigorously, her spirit returning.

‘I also want you both to look into NAP’s business. Find out what projects they have completed. There is a woman in the office called Dorothy Jansen.’

‘I know her. She’s a nice lady.’

‘Get her on your side and get her to pry into Katrien’s life, personal and professional. Who is she? I want to know everything about her and NAP. Find out everything you can about what they do. There is nothing like having an insider, Magda. Get Dorothy to help, discreetly.’

‘Thank you, Johnny.’ She smiled gratefully at him over her chocolate. ‘I feel so much better knowing that you are helping.’

It was a nice smile, thought Mann. But he didn’t know how long it would be there. He hated to make her life any worse right now but he had something to ask her—something that had been bugging him since this morning. He set his cup down and looked at her.

‘Magda, who is Daniel?’

She looked at him, shocked for a few seconds as her eyes searched his face in a panic. Then they softened and the pained, numb look returned as her face drained of all colour. She stared down at the hot chocolate.

‘Daniel was my eldest son.’

‘He was also my father’s?’

‘Yes.’

‘What happened to him?’

Magda kept her eyes on the table as she spoke.

‘Daniel was twenty-one when he decided to go off on his travels. He also wanted an adventure and he signed up for a volunteer programme at NAP. He spent three months moving around Thailand, working on various programmes until it was nearly time for him to come home. He had one week left. It was Christmas. Jake and I arranged to join him to spend it together. Alfie couldn’t come; he was working on a case. I didn’t mind, I thought it might be the last time my sons would want to holiday with me.’ She looked fleetingly up at Mann, as if seeking reassurance. He smiled at her and leant closer across the table so he could hear her voice, which had gone quiet.

‘Afterwards we were all going to come home together. Daniel was going to go to university later that year. I booked for us to stay in a place on the beach. Patong Beach in Phuket. I thought it would be a good place for all of us—not too quiet for the boys, a nice pool for me. It was a lovely Christmas. It had been a great evening—lots of carols on the beach, lots of hugs. So many things to look forward to, with Daniel going to university, Jake doing well in his exams, learning to drive, playing his sports; we were really happy. We talked of everything, about when they were boys, about their father. We even talked about finding you. Both of the boys wanted to.’

She looked up at Mann. ‘I am glad we had that time. The next morning we met up just before eight and went for a morning walk on the beach to get some appetite for breakfast. The minute we walked out there we looked at each other—everything looked strange. The beach was so big and bare. It looked like mud and there were so many fish left in pools. Children started playing in the new pools. Everyone on the beach was saying, “Isn’t it strange?” Then we heard some people shouting. Some locals were running and screaming and pointing to the horizon. When I looked up I saw that the horizon was not as it should be. It was tall, raised, a blue wall, coming so fast towards us. People started to scream and to run. We didn’t understand. Daniel said, “I think we should go quick, Mum, something isn’t right.” Suddenly our feet were submerged, the beach was covered in water up to our knees. We started running. It was so hard to run in the water which was
rising so fast. Children were screaming, everything from the beach was lifting up, tables, chairs, all rushing forward. I didn’t dare look back, I knew something terrible was coming. I heard the noise of the water, it roared in my ears, and the sound of screaming. We climbed over our hotel wall. The water had already come over to fill the swimming pool. People were just pointing and screaming from the windows above us. Screaming to us to run, to get up, to hurry. I knew it was coming. The water was so loud. It was close behind me. Then I was picked up into the air. The wave picked me up like I was nothing and it carried me up and over the hotel pool. People were swallowed, furniture crashed into us. My boys were close to me. I could see Jake so frightened. I could hear Daniel shouting to him to try and grab on to something. And then the wave pushed us up onto a balcony on the first floor of the hotel. We managed to climb into a room. The water was in there up to our knees. There were other people in there, a family. We waited huddled together as we looked down, out onto the street where the restaurants and shops had been. We saw people drowning, desperately trying to hang on to anything. Dogs yelping, children and people screaming, crying for each other. People shouting. People screaming in pain. So many people were hurt, glass broken everywhere—people bleeding, people dead in the water, people desperately clinging to anything to stop from being washed away, the wave was so powerful. Then people started to shout: “It’s coming! The water’s coming again!”’ Magda jolted the cup in her fear as
her hand shot out, reliving the memory. Her face was flushed, her eyes wide. She was breathing hard.

‘We knew we had to get out.’ She looked up at Mann, experiencing the terror all over again. ‘The water in the room was starting to rise. We were already waist deep in it. Daniel led us outside to the landing and there were the steps to the roof. We looked up—we could see that there were others there. One girl was crying below us. Her mother was trapped. We were running up the stairs. I looked at Daniel and I knew he was not going to come with us. I knew he was turning back, looking at the water rushing in at the base of the stairs, it surged so fast and strong and…I knew that he was going to go and help her and I knew that…’ She stopped and her voice broke as a sob caught her breath. She clasped her hand to her mouth to stop it from escaping and she squeezed her eyes shut to try and hold back the wrenching sorrow that was about to erupt from her throat. She took a few deep breaths and stared out at the passersby, the tourists and the backpackers, the pigeons and the children playing, and then she turned back, her eyes swimming with tears.

‘I would have given my life for his but I could not stop him. He said to me, “I love you, Mum”, and he was gone, swallowed by the water. We found his body four days later.’

She stared at Mann, stony pale now. ‘I had to identify him. He was lying in a row of hundreds of bodies. I saw him from the far end. I knew it was him right away. I recognised his big feet.’ Her face strained as she smiled. She caught her breath for a few seconds. ‘Ever
since he was a baby he had very big feet.’ She looked at Mann, her eyes now blue icebergs swimming in an ocean of sorrow. ‘It’s been sixteen months and twenty-three days since your brother, Daniel, died.’ She turned back. ‘Please, I cannot lose both my sons.’

Mann looked at her and he felt something he never thought he would—loss for a brother he had never met. He felt the hollowness inside him fill. He knew Magda was right. He had to save Jake.

The next morning Saw had not returned and the five set off under the leadership of the three deputies. Toad was leading Anna by the neck. Thomas and Silke were near her at the back and Jake was just behind Lucas at the front.

‘This is it, Lucas. This is our chance.’ Jake spoke to Lucas’s back as they pulled themselves up the steep hill. Lucas didn’t answer; he seemed to be finding it tough going. Jake looked back at Anna. She fixed her eyes on his and he knew she agreed; this was the time. Silke looked at the same time and she moved closer to Anna.

Handsome came alongside and ordered Jake and Lucas to walk quicker. Jake pretended to have a burst of speed but Lucas couldn’t manage anything. He had been walking slowly all morning and he’d been quiet. Jake waited till Handsome passed before he spoke to Lucas.

‘Hey, Lucas…Wassup, dude? You all right?’ He seemed to be stumbling more than walking.

Lucas answered but he didn’t turn around.

‘Just so fucking tired. I’ll be all right.’

Jake looked over at the distant hills that were catching the first pink rays of the sun. ‘We need to go for it now. Saw isn’t here.’

‘Yes. We’ll do it now.’ Lucas still didn’t look at Jake.

‘What is it, Lucas?’

‘My stomach kills.’

Either side of them, Saw’s men fanned out into the forest. The mule, laden with bags, plodded on, snorting as it went. The five porters were bent double beneath the weight of their heavy packs.

Jake looked back at Anna. He wished she wasn’t the one tied to Toad but he could see that Toad’s hold on her was slackening. He was finding it hard work, winding his way upwards through the trees. Jake could see he was ready to let go and so could Anna. She fixed him with a look that said, ‘It’s time.’

Jake whispered to Lucas, ‘It’s now, Lucas. Let’s fall back a bit more.’

Lucas didn’t answer but his feet slowed to almost a stop.

Jake looked behind; Anna and Toad had nearly caught up with them. Toad was distracted; he was looking at his feet. He had let go of the rope. Jake looked at Thomas; he nodded back. Jake bent down and picked up a stout piece of branch and kept it hidden against his body. He looked back at Thomas. He had done the same. Thomas had a look in his eye that told Jake he wasn’t going to back down. They would hit him, one from the back, one from the front. Silke
slipped in behind Anna. The others slowed until they were just in front of Toad and Anna. Jake turned the branch in his hands and gripped the end with both hands. Thomas stood behind Toad’s shoulder—Thomas was ready. Jake looked up at Lucas.

‘You ready, Lucas?’

Lucas didn’t answer.

‘NOW!’

But Lucas wasn’t looking at Jake, he was stumbling. Lucas grabbed at a branch to try and steady himself; it snapped off in his hand and he smashed his shoulder into the tree trunk and slipped to the ground. He lay there panting and Jake looked up to see Saw was looking straight at him.

After Mann had left for the airport, Alfie followed Katrien out of the NAP offices and watched her get into a cab. He got on his bike and followed. An expensive-looking woman like her wasn’t going to live far out of town. He was right: she lived the other side of the Jordaan. She had an apartment overlooking a wide cobbled avenue in the rich part of town. He stayed out of sight, watched her get out of the taxi and then waited outside. He saw the light go on on the top floor. He saw her reflection in the window as she drew the curtains. Now he was sure of where she lived he would come back the next morning.

Katrien finished fixing her makeup in the bathroom. She chopped up a fat line of coke on a mirror and snorted it through a five-hundred-euro note. She never got over the thrill of snorting coke using big money: the smell of the money and the high from the coke went together. She closed her eyes and screwed up her face as the pain hit the top of her nose, between her eyes. She sniffed hard and set herself out another line
for later. When she’d finished checking her makeup, she rested her foot on the side of the bath and twisted around to fasten her stocking. She smiled at her reflection in the mirror. It didn’t get much better than this—coke and money and sex. She congratulated herself: Katrien was a clever girl and she wasn’t going to let anyone fuck it up for her. Things might not have gone to plan but she would still come out of this a winner. She finished putting on her stockings, her lacy black thong and her peephole bra, before slipping on her black six-inch stilettos. She walked out of the bathroom but then doubled back to snort the other line. Back in the bedroom she poured herself a glass of Bollinger and sat down to wait for her PC to start up.

‘Hello, darling.’ She pouted into the camera, dipped her finger into the cold glass of Bollinger and ran it beneath the lace of her bra cup as she played with her nipples. ‘Have you been a good boy? Because I’ve got something nice for you—you’re going to like it. Are you ready?’

There was a pause as she read the typed reply.

Katrien gave a stamp of her stiletto.

‘Don’t ask me that now—you’ll spoil the mood. No, I didn’t find it yet…I have told you, I will get it. We will have revenge one way or another. Remember, it wasn’t just your life that was ruined. Now, stay calm. Move them north. Hand them over and we will get what is rightfully ours. It will all be over soon, my darling. Anyway…’ She rolled her eyes and smiled. ‘I know you care about
that
, don’t you, my darling? But this is also something you care about, isn’t it? I have a
surprise for you that you are going to like very much.’ She stood and played with the tie sides to her panties. ‘Are you ready?’ She undid the sides of her panties and let them fall. She adjusted the chair so that the webcam could see her and she sat down and opened her legs wide, leaned into the webcam and whispered, ‘I have seen him. The game has started.’